IF you get a cold enough 'snap' for these events (yes, I know it is NOT supposed to happen this coming weekend), do the 100/200 tread wear tires ever warm up enough to grip at all?
Depends on the cold snap. Here is my two examples:
First round was low 30's, light snow/freezing rain then it dried out. Morning runs were sketchy. 5 runs total. First two were absolutely brown code at the "corkscrew" turn. The next 2 runs were better and my final run was the best in the morning.
In the afternoon that day i was flying. It was dried at that point and the car felt so much better. It still had too much rotation but the snap oversteer was all but gone. I attribute that to the tires getting much hotter than the morning. The Federal RS-RR's are a great cheap 200TW tire and it does quite well in the wet.
I did have the Eibach sway bar installed in the rear. Even with the tires down under 28psi the car still wanted to rotate WAY too much entering easy sweeping turns. It was nearly uncomfortable at how fast it wanted to swap ends. I ended up removing the bar for the third event of the season and it was a massive difference. Car ran 28th out of 80+ cars and topped all FiST's for the day along with cars that should have killed me. So it was a benefit all around and i have left the rear bar off since.
My buddy was running a Miata on 140tw R888's that are heat cycled out and he had issues all day long. Do not suggest to ever run lower than 200tw in any below 40* temps. He ended up swapping them for RE71R's as his new wheel set.
The third event that we ran was still cold(mid 40's), wet in the morning/dry afternoon and the tires felt the same. Morning cold + wetness held me back a bit but once on my 3rd run the car really felt better. I attribute that to the tires warming up. As i said before, afternoon i was absolutely flying. Placed 28th out of 80+ cars and it just felt planted.
My new wheel/tire setup is going to be interesting. Went from a 205/50R15 on 15x7 to 205/45R16 on a 16x8. Hoping the width and size of tire will increase some turn in response that i lost with the 15's. I felt like the only way to get the 15's to react was to chop at the wheel a bit. Hoping to be a bit more smooth with the 16's. We will see as ill be taking video again to see how i place the car in entry, mid corner and exit.